Episode 254: Rethinking Our Response to Abortion w/Angie Weszely

Christians have been fighting to change abortion laws for decades now. What if the solution to abortion wasn’t in politics, but in the local church? Angie Weszely joins the podcast to talk about her ministry, “ProGrace,” that seeks to change the dialogue about one of our thorniest cultural topics. Plus, pastor says, “I can walk on water,” crocodiles say, “No you can’t!” This week on the podcast!

Phil, Skye, and Christian, I listen every week and I did not think that I could love you anymore, but this week’s podcast has proved me wrong! Thank you so much for giving us an opportunity to learn about the pro grace message. I have worked in abortion recovery ministry for several years now leading Bible studies for women who have had abortions. I have not felt like my views or needs were met fully by either the pro life or pro choice movements. Pro grace is exactly what I have been trying to champion without having it so well fleshed out as your guest’s organization.
As someone who had an abortion and also works with others who have I can say that even hearing the topic discussed, as it was on your program, can bring the traumatic feelings back as well as guilt and shame. You handled the issue with such grace and care- thank you. Would it be possible for you to mention on a future show some resources that are available if any of your listeners need to work through their abortion experiences? Abortionrecovery.org has information about getting help. Also, Christian counselors and pregnancy centers may be able to help. I personally lead an amazing study written by Linda Cochrane called, “Forgiven and Set Free”. She has written a book for men involved in abortion as well called, “Healing the Father’s Heart”. Angie Weszely is correct that it is rare for people to fully feel the grace that they could from this sin. Healing and processing it in the light of God’s word and who He is a huge part of receiving that grace.
Thanks so much for all that you guys do!

Hi Georgia,
Thanks for your encouraging words! And thanks for the link to the abortion recovery website. I will definitely check it out and see if that would be a helpful resource to mention. As churches begin to share the ProGrace message, one of the first things that starts to happen is that women [and men] feel the freedom to share their abortion experiences, many for the first time. It has been on my heart to try and develop something that God could use to bring even more healing. Pray for us as we navigate this! And blessings to you in your work.

What an enriching and perspective-altering podcast. Angie Weszely is a fresh, persuasive voice in an often contentious arena. Thank you for having her on. As I was listening, I kept thinking that so many of the hot-button issues we deal with in the church today would benefit from the same framework ProGrace offers. Particularly in interactions on LGBTQ+ issues, it seems that stepping away from the popular, binary approach of “we’re right and you’re wrong–end of conversation” would allow for true connection, true understanding and true healing (on all sides) to happen. I’ll be mulling over what Angie shared and implementing it in my own approach to those whose choices and struggles are different from mine.

Thank you so much for this podcast, What a great message. As a pro-life Democrat, I’m constantly in this tension of these false dichotomies that our current political climate has brought us. The pro-grace stance is profound, and needed. From now on, I’ll no longer describe myself as pro-life, but pro-grace.

However, there is another thing that the church MUST do if it wants to truly change the world when it comes to the abortion debate, and Skye touched on it towards the end of the podcast, when he recounted the story of his daughter asking, “Why does President Obama want to kill babies?” Until pro-life Republican Christians cease such hate-filled, lying rhetoric, the unchurched will never take them, or their positions, seriously.

Lyle, wow! So encouraging that you could embrace the ProGrace message right away and begin to describe yourself that way. And to your suggestion about our language, I agree. In our workshops, we walk through how Jesus responded to the difficult issues of his day, always with grace…You can see more of how we address these through our blogs and enews if you want to stay in touch.

albertmohler.comHi Phil,
This is not actually a reply to your podcast episode about abortion … I just didn’t know how else to send you a message. Please feel free to NOT approve this being published on your site. You can get in touch with me via my e-mail (if you feel the need … if not, that’s OK).

I would love to hear your and Skye’s reaction to the first couple stories in the podcast linked below from Al Mohler last week … especially since the first one directly affects the state of Illinois. My impression from listening to your weekly podcast for the last year or so is that neither you nor Skye view religious freedom as a big issue that Christians should be concerned about and that the sexual/gender revolution being driven by the LGBT community is a benign, non-issue that we merely need to make peace with. If that doesn’t fairly represent your perspective, I apologize, but it is the impression I have been left with based on what seem like dismissive responses to these issues in the past.

If you don’t regularly listen to Mohler’s daily 20-minute podcast, I highly recommend it as a very thoughtful, fair and honest analysis of current events from a Christian perspective that is also conservative politically and theologically. Maybe it would help to balance out some of the louder and less temperate or thoughtful voices on the right.

I think the discussion of abortion in America and the church’s response is still too narrow. The church cannot expect people to realistically not have sex before marriage when the distance between puberty (approx 12 yrs old+) and the culturally normative marriage age keeps growing. These days people wait til after college and establish careers before getting married. I’ve even heard Christian parents advising for this for their kids. This means about 15+ years between puberty and when they ‘can have sex.’ Telling them this is what God wants is not only horrendous, but sadistic, on ‘our’ and God’s part. But of course, it’s chicken and egg too. Ready and acceptable abortion in the wider culture allows for waiting longer to start a family (at least, the one you plan for), but if the church expects people to wait til marriage to have sex, then you’re going to have a lot of abortions there too. Even though it’s completely unrealistic to move the normative cultural marriage age back closer to puberty (as it was not long ago in history), we have to understand that the whole abortion/church/culture/sex conflict is of our own making, because we as humans CAN take measures to reconstruct a society where marriage is closer to puberty, we just don’t want to. Thus, we will continue to put a band-aid on a shotgun wound for the foreseeable future, and continue to drive people away from the church and God and have massive shaming and confusion in our whole culture with regards to sex.

I’m not sure I can express how much I look forward to this podcast every week. I started listening last summer and have since listened to every episode. I find myself challenged, affirmed, encouraged, entertained and introduced to so many authors, speakers and resources to help me personally and professionally. This particular episode was the first time I’d heard of the pro grace movement, and it was especially impactful not just on the topic of abortion but for so many social issues. The church has spent a lot of time trying to make the government the answer to so many issues when we should be the answer. I will be listening to this one again. Thank you Phil, Christian and Skye for loving the Lord, expressing your views, asking the questions many of us are asking and doing it in a fun, thoughtful and Godly way.

Such a great episode. This is exactly the kind of conversation we need to be having in the church. You mentioned Kara Powell at one point, in her book “Growing Young” she shares an example of a church showing such grace to a young unmarried couple.

Keep up the good work Angie and thank you Phil & Skye for having her on!